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'But once I joined the break then I was always confident that I could get the win. I didn't know the peleton was close behind me but it all worked out.

'I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to get three in a row but I'll certainly be doing my best.'

Goss set the early pace from the start in Hull and made a break after just eight kilometres but the peloton quickly dragged it back.

However, Goss was not to be denied and made another break alongside South Australia's Travis Meyer and Di Luca 20km later.

The trio opened up a gap of two minutes before Boasson Hagen and Victor Hugo Pena joined them at 53km.

They piled on the pressure to extend the gap to five minutes 40 seconds after 84km but by the time they entered the Dalby Forest hills for the first time the peloton started to drag them back.

The pace was too much for Meyer as the peloton closed the gap but 1,500m from the line Boassen Hagen made his decisive move.

But Swift, who lives in Sheffield, admitted his home stage through Yorkshire could not have gone any better despite failing to pick up any points.

Closest rivals Kristian House and Di Luca failed to eat into his 10-point lead and with three stages left, Swift is confident he can win the polka dot jersey for the second successive year.

'The stage went perfectly for me - I'm only focusing on the king of the mountain jersey now and the guys who are at the front weren't really a challenge to my jersey so I didn't need to chase them down,' Swift said.

'After the climbs I could really focus on trying to get the stage win but we couldn't quite catch them.

'But in terms of the day I'm happy because I managed to keep hold of my jersey and hopefully I have saved my legs a little bit for the last three days.'